


Rainbow Fish

by twinklehwa



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: M/M, mentions of bartender!yeosang, seonghwa loves fish and is panicked, teacher!joong, uwu soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:08:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23362978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twinklehwa/pseuds/twinklehwa
Summary: What seemed to have been a normal day as a tour guide at the aquarium turned into a very special one as a teacher who brought his class in for a field trip made Seonghwa's heart start to speed up past what should be normal.
Relationships: Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	Rainbow Fish

Chapter one

“Alright everyone, make sure you have everything! Do you have your water bottles, lunches, bags? As soon as you get off the bus stand next to your buddy for attendance!” Hongjoong stood at the front of the school bus helping each of his kids hop off the stairs and line up one by one as they each seemed to bounce off the walls, anticipating the spring field trip to the Twilight Aquarium.

He hadn’t been outside for all of three minutes before he had already felt sweat start to run down the back of his neck, down to the collar of his light blue polo. It would feel so nice to be inside with some proper air conditioning, but first to make sure he hadn’t left a kid behind…

“Ok guys are we all here? Good, when I say your name, say “here” alright?”  
“Yongguk and Daehyun? Doyoung and Jungwoo? Dahyun and Jihyo? Minho and Kibum?...”

After double-checking that in fact, he had not left a child behind, Hongjoong quickly thanked the bus driver and ushered his class across the parking lot, of course making sure to look both ways before crossing. He had found through years of experience that making a human chain while walking was the best way to handle younger kids so, hand in hand, Hongjoong acted as the line leader stringing along 18 kids that each seemed to have more energy in their pinky than he had in his whole body.

Don’t get him wrong, Hongjoong loved his job more than anything, despite the below-average pay rate. No, in his eyes, creating a curriculum and educating the young minds of the next generation was priceless, especially when he always had the class with the sweetest kids who treated him more as an older brother and not an authority figure. But he wasn’t in it for the money, especially when his flatmate, Yeosang, paid his half on time every month in full.

In fact, Hongjoong was quite fond of his roommate, after being friends for so long moving in together and sharing a living space only seemed natural. It was just that the two of them shared drastically different schedules and lifestyles. While Hongjoong had a very standard schedule of an 8-3 job, Yeosang didn’t leave for work until around 9 pm and rarely got back before 4 am. This sadly leads to the duo rarely seeing each other around, and if they did, it would only be a quick “good morning” or “have a good day” before someone went off to work or someone else finally got in a well-deserved nap. Yet Hongjoong couldn’t complain when he was woken up every now and then by the sound of his roommate coming home late when he made it a point to hop in the shower every night to rid his body of any trace of the smell of alcohol before he stank up the whole house. No Yeosang wasn’t a stripper, he was just the bartender at the club where they worked. 

Hongjoong quietly smiled to himself as he remembered how Yeosang was passed out on the couch that morning, not even stirring when Hongjoong accidentally closed the door too hard. He could never understand why his friend loved the hectic, loud lifestyle as much as he did, but to each their own. Sometimes opposites really did attract huh.

“Hongjoong-ah! My older sister showed me a picture of a really big shark yesterday and their teeth were really sharp and scary, are we gonna see a shark today?” Standing outside the main doorway, he stopped his group to catch their breath, but one of his students hid themselves behind their pack, eyes wide and glistening. “Ah Junseo we might, but just remember that they can’t hurt you in their tanks and we’re surrounded by big, strong professionals who will look out for us ok? I’m sure as you see all of the pretty, colorful fish you’ll forget all about the sharks.” Hongjoong crouched down to reached the smaller’s eye level and rustled his hair as a sign of reassurance and support.

Seeing as everyone was now excited to walking through the big glass doors to start their trip, and get some air conditioning, Hongjoong started the human chain once again and lead them into the bright blue building anticipating a great day. 

____________________________________________________________________________

“Ya hyung where the fuck are you?” Yunho whispered rather loudly into his intercom as he paced around the jellyfish exhibit on the lookout for his coworker that was most definitely late to host a tour that should be starting in exactly two minutes. “Jesus I’m coming, watch your mouth you wouldn’t want to be fed to the Nile crocs would you, they’re not called the most aggressive crocodilian for nothing.” Yunho heard his friend’s foggy voice through his intercom and chose to step into a supply closet for the good of the young children who didn’t need to hear him curse his friend out. “Seonghwa shut the fuck up, I’m telling you absolutely no one cares about your god damn crocodiles. We’re gonna be late just meet me by the tetra exhibit in the front.” 

“Yes boss, as you wish.”

Unlike pretty much everyone else who worked at the Twilight Aquarium, Seonghwa loved his job. He knew from a surprisingly young age that he wanted to research the ocean and the animals, plants, and everything in between in it, except he didn’t quite realize how much time and work it would take. Which is why when he wasn’t studying and getting his degree in marine biology, he was right here at the aquarium, learning as much as he could (and making as much as he could) to hopefully live out his dream of exploring the sea one day. 

Sadly, he hadn’t found anyone who seemed to be the right fit for a roommate, and because the job at the aquarium only paid so much, he was stuck in a one-bedroom apartment with doors that would either fly open if someone sneezed on them, or required a battery ram to open, it really depended on the day. Rent on top of his schooling tuition was enough to make anyone stretch every cent, Seonghwa included. But as long as the floor didn’t collapse under him and he didn’t freeze to death, he wouldn’t complain. 

When he got Yunho’s message it wasn’t that he necessarily forgot about the group. It’s just that the stingray pond looked extra nice today and those guys could keep anyone entertained for hours. By a stroke of fate, Seonghwa noticed his partner on the other side of the pool on his way to greet the group tour and Seonghwa quickly left behind his beloved stingrays, sawfishes, skate rays, and shovelnoses. 

“God there you are I was wondering if you had fallen in a tank and left us to be one with the fishes,” Yunho said with a slight eye roll as the two of them picked up their pace into a fast walk, now two minutes late. Seonghwa returned his eye roll and shook any excess water from his hand as they turned the corner bounding towards the tetra tank right at the front entrance, “Sadly I’m not that lucky today, I’ll try again tomorrow.” 

Seonghwa found a strange appreciation towards the smaller, colorful fish on display near the front of the building. Tetras, fighting betta fish, guppies, you name it, something about how the light reflected off of them and they seemed to live such carefree lives, or maybe he just liked smaller, cuter things. 

While Yunho gave tours almost daily, Seonghwa wasn’t as fond of the role of a tour guide. Not because he was one of those weird “animals are my only friend type”, no he actually was quite the extrovert, but when at work he had a tendency to ramble and get very boring very fast. So he usually stuck to monitoring and feeding whichever section of the aquarium he was assigned to. 

Just before the pair reached their destination, Yunho turned around to the older man, a slight smirk on his face. “Alright, it’s been a while for you so two most important rules, one: shut the fuck up and let me talk, two: don’t let any small children fall into the shark tank, got it?” Seonghwa gently sighed and rolled his eyes for what seemed like the tenth time since they met up near the rays, “yes boss of course, whatever you say.” Was Yunho actually his boss? Most certainly not. Did he enjoy calling him that just to irritate him a tiny bit? Most definitely. “Fantastic now let’s get over there and give them hell,” Yunho added before walking away, leaving Seonghwa to freeze and ponder why they’d ever “give hell” to a bunch of elementary schoolers.

“Hi everyone! Thank you so much for coming to Twilight Aquarium. My name in Yunho and my lovely companion is Seonghwa. We’ll be guiding you guys around and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask,” Yunho explained with a huge smile plastered on his face and hands clasped together and Seonghwa stood there smirking at how quickly his friend could switch into “happy-go-lucky tour guide” mode. 

Without a second of hesitation, a taller boy with long, floppy hair that covered his eyes shot his hand up and without waiting to be called on asked, “my sister showed me a picture of a big, scary shark. I think they’re really scary but Hongjoong said you guys would protect me because you’re big and strong.” This earned a chuckle from both tour guides and the teacher, who was apparently named Hongjoong, as Seonghwa kneeled down to the small boy. “Ah your teacher is right, we will definitely protect you, but did you know that actually cows are more dangerous than sharks? So you have nothing to be afraid of but you can always hide behind me,” Seonghwa gently said making sure the boy’s fears were eased. He understood the stereotype behind sharks, especially for small children, but he wished there was a way for them to see how smart and peaceful the large creatures could be. Once he saw there were no more questions, Yunho began the tour and started off with the closest tank. 

As Yunho led their new group towards the closest tetra take, Seonghwa thought it would be a good idea to introduce himself, and Yunho on his behalf, to the teacher just to make sure they were on the same page for the upcoming day. And despite the fact that his height was almost a head smaller than his own, Seonghwa noticed how carefully he was watching over his class with a careful eye, making sure that everyone was paying attention and interested in what Yunho had to say.

“Ah hello there, sorry to interrupt, but it’s Hongjoong, correct?.” Seonghwa didn’t want the teacher to lose track of the tour and also didn’t want to bother any of the students so he made sure to keep his voice to a whisper as he timidly stuck out his hand. “Oh yes, hello Seonghwa, is it? I’m Kim Hongjoong, but just call me Hongjoong, they all do it anyway, it’s just easier,” the smaller man said motioning to his class, eyes still glued to whatever Yunho was talking about. Obviously Seonghwa expected the man to be relatively friendly, he was an elementary school teacher after all, yet he’d be lying if he said his heart didn’t skip a beat as his gigantic smile turned his eyes into crescents and the light glinted off his glasses as he turned to face him. 

The older tour guide didn’t even realize when Yunho lead the class to the angelfish exhibit just down the hall as he tried to listen to Hongjoong’s brief introduction. “... does that work ok for you two? I know you have your own schedule so just let me know, we’re very flexible.” Seonghwa would be lying if he said he had any idea what the smaller man was talking about, but he quickly snapped out of his daze and tried not to focus on the teacher’s small laugh as he picked up on the fact that Seonghwa’s mind was blank. “Oh, uh, sure that works perfectly. Yeah I’m flexible too, or we both are, Yunho is rather flexible himself, not physically though just…” His hands went flying as he tried to explain that they were both on board for any schedule but ended up attempting to draw in the air, yet just ended up drawing a blank once again.

“Alright Seonghwa, let’s just play it by ear then and enjoy today,” Hongjoong said, once again followed by a small laugh and one of the brightest smiles the tour guide had ever seen. “Oh whoops, looks like they left without us.” the smaller said as they both realized they had been standing in the foyer as Yunho lead the group away. As the teacher raced towards them, Seonghwa took a second to run his hands through his dark hair and take a few deep breaths. This was going to be a long day.

**Author's Note:**

> ah hello!! this is my first fic and I'm very very excited! I cannot promise regular updates but I will try my best :0
> 
> Twitter - Twinklehwaa
> 
> have a great day and drink your water!!:)


End file.
